“complex and arresting… Blexbolex’s silkscreened prints are both retro and modern” The New York Times

“Each page of No Man’s Land is a standalone thing of beauty. Blexbolex’s style manages to compress a century of visual storytelling, somehow bringing to mind both Frans Masereel and Richard McGuire.” Adrian Tomine, author of Optic Nerve and Shortcomings

The author of one of our most beautiful books to date and the winner of several internationally acclaimed book prizes, Blexbolex, brings you his very first graphic novel from Nobrow Press. At 140 pages it is his most ambitious personal project to date, in the making for 5 years! The sliver of beautiful content in the slideshow above is but a fraction of the enthralling, beautiful and disturbing yarn woven by a man that has defined an era of illustration with his matisse-like boldness of colour and shape, his artistry in design and production and attention to detail down to the very plates that print his books. We have been excited about this since we first heard about it three years ago, well, it is very nearly in your hands – don’t miss your chance to own an original first edition of a design classic!

Plot:

In the wake of a national conspiracy, a hard-boiled detective finds himself on the wrong end of a death sentence. The executioner: himself, firing two suicidal shots to the head for his revealed crimes against society. However, as the bullets tear through his synapses, something strange happens. Snapping into overdrive, his brain refuses to give up without a fight, throwing him into an intense psychological odyssey of survival.

Taking place entirely in this one decisive moment, No Man’s Land invites the reader to witness the inner workings of a psyche hovering between life and death. With its unnamed hero’s subconscious desperately refusing to accept the inevitable, it frantically assembles ever-more bizarre and terrifying scenarios for him to play out. Taking inspiration from the conventions of popular literature, reality and fiction blur together, creating a genre spanning epic that pushes the fourth wall to the limit.

A sequel to 2010’s Dog Crime, Blexbolex picks up immediately from where the events of his mind-bending dystopian homage to detective noir left off. Once again taking inspiration from classic American pulp fiction, he draws upon his love of the classic horror, fantasy, and sci-fi magazines of the 1930s and 40s. Reinterpreting the themes and symbols of those imaginary worlds, he thoughtfully explores genre, along with our own reliance on fiction—asking the question of why, we as readers are so attracted the fantastic. Intelligent, experimental and full of wit, No Man’s Land satirises the mind’s ability to seduce itself—mercilessly hurtling its hero around an implausible dreamland designed to mask the processes of mortality. Known for his acclaimed children’s books such as Seasons and People, this graphic novel is a chance to see a whole new side to the French creator. Featuring the idiosyncratic art and rhythmic narrative style that have become the writer/ artist’s trademarks, this book continues Blexbolex’s reputation of redefining the potentials—and pleasures—of the illustrated story format.